


Day 143

by glamourweaver



Category: Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure (Cartoon)
Genre: Gen, Implied Body Horror, referenced psychological trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-05
Updated: 2021-01-05
Packaged: 2021-03-16 08:48:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28579260
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/glamourweaver/pseuds/glamourweaver
Summary: Research into the Moonstone and the power to wield it hits a dead end
Relationships: Implied Cassandra & Rapunzel, Lord Demanitus & Zhan Tiri
Kudos: 14





	Day 143

Day 143 -  
Another tragic failure today. I cannot in good conscience continue these experiments, no matter the potential utility of the power of the Moonstone for the world. Every time we have proceeded we have been certain that THIS volunteer will triumph, with THIS tool, under THESE conditions. But four deaths are four too many. I should have put a stop to this after the first, but my partner kept assuring me that with what we’d learned our next test was certain to succeed!

No, I can’t blame her. I am just as guilty. My own hubris blinded me as I delved deeper and deeper chasing sunken costs. The truth I must accept is that the conditions necessary to wield the Moonstone can not be ethically achieved, if they are achievable at all. And if there are other conditions, the experimentation necessary to identify them them will certainly cost more lives, and that is unacceptable, no matter what of my own arguments for a greater good Zhan Tiri echoes back to me.

The remains we were able to recover today painted a similar story to our previous experiments, despite the fact that the poor man, having recently lost his family to plague was suffering a lapse of his sense of self, a full traumatic crisis we had hoped would facilitate a fluidity of identity to be reshaped by the Moonstone’s power around itself - a state Zhan Tiri dubbed “a lunacy”. I can’t believe we told that man that Moonstone could help show him a new reason to keep living. This is the point where good men would begin to fear hell.

The recovered organic matter from the black rocks did elucidate new information which only serves to further discourage me as to the achievability of our goals. The amygdala was completely calcified into onyx stone which shattered. I hypothesize the Moonstone’s power was reaching for something in the subject’s emotions, and not finding it, kept reaching until it killed him.

Sharing my hypothesis with Zhan Tiri, she performed a scrying with the shards, seeking the psychometric resonance of what the Moonstone was looking for. The glow of golden light and sense of deep yearning that filled the room was intense and briefly awe inspiring. It seems the Moonstone shares our desire for the hypothetical “Sunstone”... though perhaps I should stop referring to it as hypothetical?

I have considered the possibility that our own desire to locate the “Sunstone” might resonate enough with the Moonstone’s that it would accept one of us as host. But the intentional psychological trauma necessary for such an experiment is unthinkable! Furthermore I fear our utilitarian curiosity does not sufficiently match the Moonstone’s magnetic pull for its partner. Only a host that... I can’t believe I’m writing this... LOVED the sunstone could hope to be a sufficient host for the moonstone. And if the pull is mutual, they may need to be loved in return if they are to survive! But how can such a thing be possible?

Zhan Tiri has already begun sketching out methods to develop a test subject with the necessary recent psychological trauma and extreme attachment to an object of magical power we know nothing about. But this is a fool’s errand. I must put a stop to this. Even if she doesn’t kill more people, even attempting to create the right subject would be an act of unconscionable intentional traumatization.

Perhaps we can re-examine the question if we have more data on the Sunstone. I have leads to follow from regional legends. But this will be my final entry for the time being on the Moonstone experiments. - Demanitus Codex #7


End file.
